Good news for Latitude X1 owners!

Hi all,
work Windows 8 on Dell Latitude X1
(2GB RAM,60GB HDD)

How-to ?
Thanks.

 

Windows 8 generic driver on Beta was not able to run native resolution ~ haven't tried again. But I have sever doubts it would be better.

new question - Has anyone tried putting 4GB of memory in an X1 yet?
I realized today this really is the best laptop I ever still have. (considering I upgraded the memory in 2008 to 2gb, and put an SSD in) Still ticking along - great for general internet usage. (I guess more memory isn't really that great a requirement)

 

Hallo to everybody and thank you for this precious thread.
I'm an owner of the Dell Latitude X1 from 2005 and I'm using it every day from then.
More than 7 years and more than 10k hours of service without a problem, I don't remember any other piece of hardware so solid.
The only maintenance services I've done so far are a 1GB memory module, the fixing of power brick cord, and a lot of batteries of course .
Recently I've bought another X1 (without HD) on an auction site, in order to have a replacement if any problems develop in my main X1.
My intention is to do an hardware upgrade on this second X1 and, if everything goes well, to use it as my main notebook.
The components that I'm interested in upgrading are : RAM, HDD and DISPLAY.


With regard to the RAM, 4GB of memory would be very nice, but I don't think it's possible because the datasheet of the 915GMS chipset clearly states that :
"All standard 256 Mb, 512 Mb, and 1 Gb technologies and addressing are supported
[...]
By using 1-Gb technology, the largest memory capacity is 2 GB"
So, in my opinion, the largest memory module we can mount is a SO-DIMM with 16 chips x 1Gbit (i.e. 128Mx8) = 2 GByte
Anyway, I'd be happy to be proven wrong.


About the HDD, I'd like to replace the original Toshiba with a SSD.
The first thing that comes to my mind is to to put a mSata module (like Samnsung PM830) in a mSata-to-ide adapter, like that.
The problem (besides the 44 pin output connector which can be easily (?) replaced with a CF50) is that it doesn't fit in the available space on the X1.
Further, it is based on the JM20330 bridge which doesn't support TRIM functions.
I wonder if anyone know a suitable mSata-to-ide adapter...
So, the Plan B is to buy the Kingspec 128 GB 1.8" SSD IDE drive, even if it doesn't support TRIM, too.
This solution will force to do a boring periodical (weekly ?) maintenance of the disk drive.


At last, I think that the replacement of the CCFL display with a LED-backlighted one, as someone has suggested, would be a bit challenging but not impossible.
I think that the major improvement of this upgrade would be the a longer battery life due to the lower power consumption of LED technology.


Greetings
Rik

 

Finally tested my Samsung 32gb SSD (its been fast enough but all I ever do is read the internet)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 Shizuku Edition (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 27.853 MB/s
Sequential Write : 16.315 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 28.277 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 6.576 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 7.866 MB/s [ 1920.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.111 MB/s [ 27.0 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 9.013 MB/s [ 2200.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.109 MB/s [ 26.7 IOPS]

Test : 500 MB [C: 75.6% (23.1/30.5 GB)] (x2)
Date : 2012/11/27 15:43:03
OS : Windows XP Professional SP3 [5.1 Build 2600] (x86)

 

guys thanks for all the info i bought the kingspec 32gb ssd with cf interface (costed about 50 on amazon.)

just wanted to let you guys know some guy on MDL made a patch to install Windows 8 on our beloved X1 (it did eat 10GB of the 29.4GB) check this out:

[Q] Win 8, bypass PAE/NX/SSE2 check - Page 12

everything works great if you follow the guide to the letter, (you can even do windows update and repatch), only problem was that windows 8 won't install the HP intel video drivers, not from device manager (using extracted files) and not by using setup.exe in vista mode. (in Windows 7 was able to install via DM)

 

Hello,

I hope somebody runs Linux on this device and can help me

Have Lubuntu 13.04 with kernel 3.8.0-30 and some time ago (that was with kernel 3.8.0-27) discovered that CF card reader doesn't work with this distro. I found some info related to module "tifm_sd", but in my case SD card reader work.

Last week I tried live (USB) image of puppy linux (based on woody with kernel 2.6.32-59) and CF reader work.

I'm unable to find what's missing, what should be enabled etc. in Lubuntu.

Logs:
lspci - Pastebin.com
dmesg_lubuntu - Pastebin.com
dmesg_puppy - Pastebin.com

Any help appreciated!

Thanks,
b.

 

First of all, thanks to everyone in this forum for providing detailed knowledge about upgrading the Dell Latitude X1. For the last couple of years, I have upgraded my X1 which I bought in 2005 step-by-step. In the following section, I would like to give you an update what has worked for me with links so that X1 lovers might get a good idea quickly without the need to read various posts.

1) Dell hast great manuals and documentations for this notebook online, so you can find out quickly how to access RAM, HDD ect.
Manuals and Documents for Latitude X1 | Dell US
2) Upgrade of RAM to 2 GB: Works great. Less than 30$. I bought RAM from Kingston.
Amazon.com : Kingston ValueRAM 2GB 667MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL5 SODIMM Notebook Memory : Computer Memory : Electronics
3) Upgrade of HDD to SSD: Works great. I bought a 128 GB from KingSpec for less than 150$.
Amazon.com: 128GB KingSpec 1.8-inch IDE CF 50-pin SSD Solid State Disk (MLC): Computers & Accessories
4) Add SDHC card: Nice way to increase memory for documents, pictures ect.. I bought a 32 GB SDHC card from SanDisk for around 30$.
Amazon.com: SanDisk Extreme 32 GB SDHC Class 10 UHS-1 Flash Memory Card 45MB/s SDSDX-032G-AFFP: Electronics
5) I always put my X1 into standby after work. This dramatically decreases the time until the X1 is responsive again, i.e. you can start to work with office or surf the internet again in about 15 s after opening the lid. Of course, standby only puts my work and settings in RAM and draws a small amount of power. However, standby works great and I find it much more convenient as compared to hibernation mode where it takes about 80 s until the computer is ready to work again. I also have the impression that I have to do Tony Trim (see below) less often if i use standby which might be due to the writing of 2 GB RAM content to the SSD every time you put the notebook into hibernation.
6) Software: I have installed Windows 7 and Office 2010. Apart from wasting a couple of hours until the correct display driver was installed (thanks to the hints in this forum it finally worked ), installation went smoothly and the programs show a performance similar to Windows XP and Office 2003 which were originally installed when I bought the X1. The only Linux distribution that I was able to install on the X1 without any problems (installation time less than 1 h) has been Joli OS 1.2 which I love to run as an alternative OS besides Windows 7. Unfortunately, there have not been new versions of this OS since 2011 which is really sad since the system has a lot of potential.

Problems that I have not been able to solve:
1) SSDs for the X1 are rather slow, have no TRIM and are rather expensive (see above). I am still happy that I upgraded my old HDD but the increase in speed has been much more subtle as compared to an upgrade where I exchanged a SATA HDD for a SATA SSD in my old desktop computer. It is sort of saying NICE (X1) versus WOW (old desktop) I perform the Tony Trim Guide A simple guide for speeding up EOL OCZ SSD's. every now and then and it brings some speed back to the SSD but do not expect too much.
2) Playing videos from the internet, e.g. from Youtube, does not really work well even if you use low resolution. I use my X1 preferentially for Office and simple Websites so it is not a real problem for me. However, I agree that the Dell Latitude E4200 is a much better deal if you want to use Youtube ect. frequently on a light-weight notebook.

I hope that sharing my experiences helps some of the readers who are thinking about an upgrade of the X1. Please let me know if you have any questions or any further suggestions!

 

Your upgrades are practically identical to mine, Benton. Like you I ended up with a system that is functional for what I need (basic e-mail, browsing, and MS Office). But you're right that playing videos doesn't work very well. Streaming flash video is pretty much hopeless, but if you have something saved to disk, it plays reasonably well. All this is not unexpected given the advances in streaming (compression, video technology, etc) since 2005.

I haven't tried the Tony Trim method yet, but will give that a try. The system does seem to be a bit more sluggish now than when I first installed the upgrades, but in my experience that happens over time with any new system or fresh OS install.

 

Hi guys,

Just wanted to contribute my story -

I have been running Dell X1 from somewhere around 2006. This is may only laptop since then. No upgrades, couple new batteries and new power cords, +1 GB RAM back in 2006.

Currently I am running Crunchbang Linux which is fully functional on this laptop out of the box. The only issue that I am getting from time to time is that wifi goes off after some extensive abuse of the channel when the laptop gets really hot.

 

I have managed to run Windows 8.1 on my X1, ran cleanly upgrading from my previous Windows 7 Professional. Only downside was the lack of a proper video driver so it only runs at 1024x768.

Now looking at replacing the original 60GB hard drive with a larger one so I can dual boot Win 7 and Win 8. Does the KingSpec 128GB CF drive fit in the X1 without a converter cable ?